Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy
AcronymPhD
DPhil
TypePostgraduate education
Duration3 to 8 years
PrerequisitesBachelor's degree
Master's degree
(varied by country and institution)

A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD or DPhil; Latin: philosophiae doctor or doctor in philosophia)[1] is a terminal degree, that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated PhD (or, at times, as Ph.D. in North America), pronounced as three separate letters (/ˌpˈd/ PEE-aych-DEE).[2][3][4]

The abbreviation DPhil, for "Doctor of Philosophy",[5] is used by the University of Oxford.[6] Additionally, it was formerly used by the University of York and University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.[7]

PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Since it is an earned research degree, those studying for a PhD are required to produce original research that expands the boundaries of knowledge, normally in the form of a dissertation, and, in some cases, defend their work before a panel of other experts in the field. In many fields, the completion of a PhD is typically required for employment as a university professor, researcher, or scientist.[8]

  1. ^ "Degrees and Diplomas" (PDF). Trinity College Dublin. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  2. ^ "PhD". Oxford Living Dictionaries – British and World English. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  3. ^ "Ph.D." Oxford Living Dictionaries – North American English. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  4. ^ "PhD". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  5. ^ Robert Currie (1994). "The Arts and Social Studies, 1914–1939". In Brian Harrison (ed.). The History of the University of Oxford: The twentieth century. Clarendon Press. p. 125. ISBN 9780198229742. Very few persons had received even an honorary DLitt by 1916 when the Reverend E. M. Walker, Senior Tutor of Queen's, proposed, as the Oxford Magazine put it, that the University 'should divert the stream' of American aspirants to the German universities' degree of philosophiae doctor by opening the DLitt to persons offering a suitable dissertation nine terms after graduation. Apart from a successful move led by Sidney Ball, philosophy tutor at chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OP5ePl7i5EIC&pg=PA125 |St John's, to distinguish the proposed arrangement from both the DLitt and the German PhD by adopting the English title "doctor of philosophy" (DPhil), the scheme meet with little opposition
  6. ^ "What is a DPhil?". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2014. A DPhil is the Oxford term for a PhD.
  7. ^ "MPhil/DPhil in Life History Research". UK: Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research, University of Sussex. 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  8. ^ "The disposable academic". The Economist. 16 December 2010. Archived from the original on 7 January 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2018.